They have as much to lose as reddit and Wikipedia. It seem hypocritical to me.

1, 2, and 3, no way. 4 and 5, maybe. But mail spam is going to up in price a lot. I think it will almost totally go away in the next 5 years. People forget that they only things we innovate are things we actually care about. The level on complexity in the average cell phone far out paces the level of technology, even well, in the space program.

Last pass works great for that. Lastpass.com

Come on people. Really?? This guy doesn't deserve to be beaten into the ground for asking this. It's a good question. I've been in this situation more than once. If the project has much further to go, and your direct effort has a large effect on the outcome of the project, you may be in a position to ask for equity or options. Don't expect a huge percentage. Think 10%. Maybe lower depending on the financials and length you expect to be involved. I've seen vesting for certain amounts of time, or tied to revenue. Which brings us to the really hard part. How do you get money out of it? If you own options, you don't really own anything, until they are exercised. You are not entitled to anything, no profit sharing, no payouts, nothing until the company sells, the company or another share holder wants to buy the options, or you invest money in the company to exercise the shares yourself. (Options are just an option to buy, not free money. Even if the options were free to you.) In some cases you are even restricted to selling the options to pre-approved people. Private companies have a lot of control over who owns their shares, they are in fact restricted to NOT selling shares to the general public.